he
commanded, and which he held for two hours against all the efforts of
the French, and so gave time for the army to make a hasty retreat.

The army was, moreover, straitened by want of provisions; Lord Galway
and his colleagues had made no arrangements whatever for its supply.
Day and night the German favorites of the king, who had ruined their
master's cause by dissuading him from following the advice of Lord
Peterborough, now labored with the king still further to destroy his
confidence in Peterborough; and finding himself treated coldly by the
ungrateful monarch, who owed everything to him, opposed at every turn by
the other generals, and seeing that his presence was worse than useless,
Peterborough announced his intention of obeying the orders from Queen
Anne, dated the 12th of June, and repeated on the 17th, to proceed to
the assistance of the Duke of Savoy.

On the same evening a council of war was held. The king formally laid
Peterborough's announcement before the generals, who, delighted to get
rid of their rival, unanimously recommended that he should depart.

On the 11th of August, full of mortification and disgust at the
treatment that he had experienced and the base ingratitude of the king,
Peterborough rode from the camp at Guadalaxara. As if to humiliate him
as far as possible, he was given only an escort of eighty dragoons,
although there were serious difficulties to be encountered on the road
to Valencia. His two favorite aides de camp, Stilwell and Graham, were
the only officers who accompanied him. It is satisfactory to know that
from the moment of the earl's departure misfortune and disaster fell
upon the fortunes of King Charles, and that the crown which he had
received from the English earl was wrested from his unworthy grasp.
Peterborough had gone but a short distance when he heard that all his
baggage, consisting of eight wagon loads and of the value of eight
thousand pounds sterling, had fallen into the hands of the enemy. When
he left Valencia to extricate the king from his difficulties he had
ordered it to be sent after him to Guadalaxara. When it arrived at
Cuenca, General Wyndham, who commanded there, forwarded it with a small
escort; but it was attacked while passing through the town of Huete by a
party of the Duke of Berwick's troopers.

The earl was furious at the news. Not only were all his personal
effects, jewels, and uniforms lost, but his spare horses, carriages,
and mules. Upo